Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1828-1882. An English painter and poet.

Early Life & Family

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born as Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti in London on 12 May 1828 as the oldest son of Gabriele and Frances Rossetti. He died at the age of 53 on 9 April 1882. Rossetti was best known as an English painter and poet.

His father Gabriele Pasquale Guiseppe Rossetti, born 1 March 1783, was an Italian scholar, former director of the Museo Borbonico in Naples and poet, who was evacuated from Italy due to his political activities. After fleeing to Malta, Rossetti would move to London.

His Mother Frances Mary Lavinia Rossetti (born Polidori) was a British educator, publishing several educational books and essays in her lifetime.

Rossetti was the oldest of two sons, with an older and a younger sister, too. The older sister, Maria Francesca Rossetti, was an author, the younger one, Christina Rossetti, acclaimed renown as a poet. His younger brother William Michael Rossetti was a critic of British poetry and art.

Initially, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was home schooled by his mother before attending King's College School until 1843, where he received an education in multiple languages such as Latin, Greek and French, showing an early interest in pursuing a career in the literary arts, similar to his parents and sibilings.

During his time at King's College School, Rossetti's interests seemingly expanded to painting a well, which is why in 1843 he was enrolled at Cary's Art Academy (also known as Henry Sass' Drawing Academy) in Bloomsbury. Three years later, in 1846, he was admitted to the Royal Academy Antique School where he studied until 1848. Afterwards he was tought by Ford Madox Brown.

Career

The first of Rossetti's oil paintings were created around 1849, among them "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin" as well as "Ecce Ancilla Domini". Those works reflect the influence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Rossetti and a few of his friends had formed. Members of the brotherhood included, among others, John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt and Thomas Woolner.

Only one year later, in 1850, Rossetti finished his ink drawing "Hesterna Rosa" which he would later transfer into watercolour (1865).Another of Rossetti's most prominent works is the unfinished painting in oil "Found" (started in 1853).

While, as indicated above, following his passion for painting, Rossetti simultaneously kept publishing works of poetry. One of his early outlets was the Germ magazine, which his brother edited.

One of the most important years of his literary career was that of 1869. That year, Rossetti published over a dozen sonnets, revised several of his older poems such as "Dante at Verona" and "Jenny" as well as releasing several erotic poems ("Eden Bower", "Troy Town").

Sources

Sharp, William. Dante Gabriel Rosetti: A Record and a Study. Macmillan and Company, 1882.

Stephens, Frederic George. Dante Gabriel Rosetti.Seeley, 1894.

"Dante Gabriel Rosetti." Poetry Foundation. 2024. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/dante-gabriel-rossetti. Accessed 7 January 2024.